Good morning everyone! I hope you are all doing well this morning. For those of you who haven't checked in since last Tuesday, please note that Gray has posted a brief update on their progress just to let us know that they are doing okay. If I remember their itinerary correctly they are leaving Barcelona today and will be spending tonight in the South of France.
I'm going to continue with my series of posts highlighting interesting discoveries I made while at the Outdoor Adventure Show. That show was quite awhile ago now but it's going to keep me writing for MONTHS! At any rate, I thought this next item tied in nicely with the Nudge article as they both focus on adventure training.
I've got a very interesting pamphlet here from a company called Canada West Mountain School, who can be found at www.themountainschool.com
The main focus of this company is on putting together mountaineering expeditions, and running mountaineering and rock climbing training courses. It's the training courses that interest me the most really. Being here in less-than-mountainous Toronto I don't really have any way to break into the exciting field of mountaineering. Of course, even if I did have the skills I'd be hard pressed to find any way to apply them, but that's beside the point - I still want to know how it's done.
CWMS runs courses for people of all skill levels, from people like me who have absolutely no mountaineering experience to seasoned veterans looking to improve their skill set. As you would imagine, they are based out of B.C. so any studying for me involves a trip out West. It would be a pretty fun vacation though since the courses are actually held out in the field. From what I'm able to gather by talking to their rep and looking at their website the courses are essentially big camping trips that happen to involve a lot of instruction along the way.
I'm pretty interested in their intro-level Mountain Skills Essentials course which is four days out in the mountains of B.C. learning the basics of how to survive out there. It sounds like a ton of fun, although you do need to provide a lot of your own gear, which would be a pain for me from a travelling perspective. Add in the flight out to Vancouver and the $695 price tag on the course and it would be a pretty expensive proposition. Still, I'm not going to learn skills like that anywhere in Ontario! I just need to head out West so I'd be able to put those skills to use.
Well ladies and gents, it's about time for me to get going. I hope you're all doing well, and keep checking back in to see if Gray and Susan give us any updates. See you all next week.
2 comments:
I have done rock climbing in Ontario. Sure it's a differnt type of adventure than climbing an entire mountain but the skills and workout are similar. Our mountains have eroded away in the Earth's 6000 years but they are still high enough for a good challenge, especially for a beginner.
Possibly inspired by your blog but the other day I was thinking of checking out the local climbing gym to see if they cater to adult beginners.
Sounds like fun! If you're planning to go count me in!
Sorry to change the subject...we are now in Monaco. The train ride from Avignon to Monaco was very picturesque as we traveled along the Cote d'Azur.
We had a lovely time in Arles. I wish we had more time to discover Provence.
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